Method for operating a telecommunication system and telecommunication arrangement

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a method for operating a telecommunication system, including in particular a mobile radio network (PLMN), to provide a service and to obtain information.

DESCRIPTION

[0001] The invention relates to a method for operating atelecommunications system, including in particular a mobile radionetwork, to provide a service and to obtain information, as well as anarrangement to implement this method.

[0002] The dramatic development of the technology and infrastructureunderlying mobile radio equipment in recent years has caused mobilecommunication to become a characteristic element of daily life in theindustrialized countries. Mobile telephones have now been establishedfar beyond the realm of professional use, as a means of communicationfor the entire population from juveniles to pensioners. The users ofmobile phones are thus largely representative of the population inindustrialized countries as a whole.

[0003] One result is that information about the users of mobile phonesis extremely valuable, for the manufacturers, retailers and servicers ofconsumer goods as well as for governmental and social agencies etc.

[0004] In addition, in view of the high production and hence purchasingcosts, everyone involved in mobile radio systems needs to ensure thatthe mobile phone is not only employed as primarily intended, as a meansfor bilateral transfer of information for the user's professional andprivate purposes, but also becomes more useful by the provision of extraservices. Towards this end, games are incorporated into the mobilephone, and information channels and service offers are provided by thenetwork operators.

[0005] Linking of the mobile radio network to the internet has alreadybeen introduced—at present on the basis of the WAP (Wireless ApplicationProtocol) and employing the simplified data communication language WML(Wireless Markup Language)—and in the near future will open up a greatnumber of new possibilities and further increase the acceptance andutilization of mobile radio technology on one hand, and of the interneton the other hand.

[0006] The German patent DE 693 09 682 discloses a hotel communicationfacility with a PABX coupling network, which is capable of responding toa call originating in a guest room so as to deliver automaticallyinformation requested by the caller, or to provide another service. Theoperating procedure of this telecommunications installation comprisesthe storage of a plurality of terminal-device call numbers belonging tothe system and the generation of primary and secondary (response)messages as well as evaluation of the primary message, which in thiscase originates from the terminals in the guest rooms. As the end resultof working through a menu, a particular item of information is conveyedto the terminal from which the primary message was sent.

[0007] The patent DE 198 33 218 A1 describes a telephone game system,one feature of which is that the participants are counted. In connectionwith this counting, an identification is provided so that when the totalcalls made by a given participant reaches a prespecified number, thatperson can be identified as a winner of the game and notifiedaccordingly. In this procedure, again, there are primary and, inresponse thereto, secondary messages, and depending on the result ofevaluating the primary message transmission of a particular secondarymessage (i.e., notification of winning) can be initiated.

[0008] The patent U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,369 discloses a so-called audiotexservice in which the items on offer are presented in a displayresembling a radio station finder. By pressing particular keys on atelephone keyboard, the user can set memory markers and thus call up aselection of the information available. Here, too, a primary message issent out by the user's terminal and in response, following evaluation ofthe primary message, a secondary message is produced and sent out by thesystem processor.

[0009] The patent DE 198 19 582 A1 presents a teaching about thelocation-dependent provision of services within a mobile radio network,in particular the location-dependent charges imposed or the performanceof route- or region-related tasks. By evaluating information regardingthe location of the participant, from a service plan that describes thelocation dependence of the services provided, a current service profileapplicable to the participant is derived. From this there can be deriveda message to be transmitted to the participant.

[0010] In this context, it is the objective of the invention to disclosea method for operating a telecommunications system, including inparticular a mobile radio network, with which in an ingenious linkagethat ensures a high degree of user acceptance an attractive service isoffered, while on the other hand information can be collected about theperson making use of this offer. A further objective of the invention isto disclose an arrangement suitable for implementing this method.

[0011] This objective is achieved with respect to its methodologicalaspect by a method with the characteristics given in Claim 1 and withrespect to the apparatus by an arrangement with the characteristicsgiven in Claim 13.

[0012] The invention includes the essential idea that in a multi-stagesequence of reaction and response steps, users of telecommunicationsterminals (in particular mobile telephones) are presented with aspecific set of in particular recreation-oriented services, and in caseof a positive response the recreation-oriented service is immediatelyprovided to the user by way of his terminal, during which processparticular items of information are obtained and stored. Thisinformation comprises in particular the (verified) user call number, thegeographic region in which the user is located, and where appropriateinformation about the individual, his leisure interests, hisrequirements regarding goods and services, etc. There are many possibleways of accomplishing this, depending on the nature of the services(forms of recreation) on offer and the kinds of information transmittedin this connection. The provider using the proposed system can thereforesatisfy the information requirements of customers in a differentiatedmanner, given that the method is suitably implemented. Moreover,advertisements can be incorporated into the transmitted information,which further enhance the economical value of the proposed invention.

[0013] In a first preferred embodiment, which can fundamentally beimplemented in cooperation with network operators, as a firstcall-number database at least one home location register or a visitorlocation register of a cellular mobile radio network can be used. Inthis variant, therefore, the method starts with an already verifiedquantity of user call numbers. As an alternative—without making use ofthe information base of a network operator—the method can start on thebasis of arbitrarily synthesized numbers, or prespecified ranges of callnumbers can be “scanned out”.

[0014] For application with a mobile radio network, informationregarding the current location of the user, based on the position of histerminal, can be obtained from his allocated place in the visitorlocation register of a special mobile switchboard or else from theconnection status with respect to a special base station of the network.It is known that the dynamic cell structure of mobile radio networksallows a specific user to be located. Here again, however, anappropriate implementation of the method is possible only incollaboration with the network operator, who has the relevantinformation at his disposal and, where its use is concerned, is subjectto both legal stipulations and rules anchored in the system standard.When the method is applied in a public land-based network, spatialinformation can relatively easily be generated on the basis of thegeographical reference encoded by the telephone number.

[0015] The messages exchanged within the scope of the method can betransmitted in speech or text form—the latter according to the permittedstandards, for example SMS (Short Message Service) and WAP (WirelessApplication Protocol) in the GSM mobile network. The choice of aspecific format will depend on the nature of the service on offer andthe target group, but also on the further technical development withrespect to the transmission and display of text messages.

[0016] In an embodiment of the method that comprises more than twostages, in particular the secondary messages—in addition to the primarymessages—contain requests for a response, and in the server means areprovided for evaluating the response message thus obtained and forstoring the results of the evaluation.

[0017] In a preferred design of the method the recreational servicebeing offered is a game or quiz or a service to pave the way forrelationships between individual users of the telecommunications system(forming interest groups, making new acquaintances, etc.). Here theprimary message gives the basic information and inquires whether theuser being addressed is willing to participate. With the very firstresponse message the service operator receives valuable informationconsisting at least in the verification of a previously arbitrarilygenerated telephone number and/or information about the location of theperson involved, as well as in the fact that this individual isinterested in the specified offer. Subsequently one or more secondarymessages are used to provide the rules for the game or information as toits progress and—given a suitable internal structure of the game orknowledge contest, or of the criteria for initiating personalrelationships—to derive additional information from the messagesreceived in response and store it in the database for evaluationresults.

[0018] In an advantageous design of the method this process generatesindividual user profiles, which on one hand, in the case of a servicefor creating personal relationships, are used to implement this service,and on the other hand represent valuable information for commercialclients of the service provider.

[0019] In an especially advantageous implementation of the method thedatabase for evaluation results is used to filter the secondary messagesin dependence on the items of information received along with theresponse messages. The progress of the game or contest or the initiationof relationships is thereby made dependent on the current status of theinformation in each case.

[0020] In another preferred embodiment the secondary messages—at leastin some stages of the method—are produced by employing memory contentsof the database for evaluation results. This also enablescross-connections between individual memory regions to be produced, suchthat for example—naturally after the affected person has presented anappropriate declaration of agreement—telephone numbers of unfamiliarsubscribers to the telecommunications system are given to a participantin the game. On this basis it is also possible to organise partner gamesunder the direction of the service provider, who also monitors theresults and finally determines the ranking of the participants andassigns the prizes.

[0021] An arrangement for implementing the proposed method isdistinguished in particular by the presence of a first and a secondcall-number database as well as a database for evaluation results, suchthat the second number database and the evaluation database accumulatethe user-related information acquired as the execution of the methodproceeds. A primary- and a secondary-message memory—the latter of whichcan store the secondary-messages in a hierarchically stackedarrangement—constitute the system-side database employed as the methodproceeds, and a progress-control unit incorporated into the server aswell as one or more server terminals are used to implement the method.The term “server terminal” should be understood, depending on thespecific design of the arrangement, to mean a telecommunicationsterminal device or a data-communication terminal or a data-communicationinterface.

[0022] In an arrangement constructed for an especially rationalimplementation of the method, a primary-message synthesis unit and/or asecondary-message synthesis unit is/are provided to automatically orsemiautomatically synthesise the speech and text of the messages on thebasis of information either programmed in or read out from a database.It is of course also possible to implement the method within theorganisational framework of a call centre, in which case each of theagents makes use of the information stored in the message memories andthe call-number databases.

[0023] Depending on the particular form taken by the method, therelevant databases also include a database for the rules of the game orfor the answers to questions in a knowledge contest, etc. It has beenpointed out above that in an advantageous embodiment of the method thedatabase for evaluation results and the second call-number database areconnected to the secondary-message synthesis unit, or can be accessed byan agent in the call centre in case the method is being carried out by aperson.

[0024] An efficient means of implementing the method is to send out, atleast phase-wise, a plurality of messages in parallel, in particular bymeans of the cell broadcast method. On this basis it is also possible toplay games in which it is a matter of the quickness of the participants'responses or of concluding the game as a whole as rapidly as possible.

[0025] Other advantages and useful features of the invention will beevident in the subordinate claims and in the following description of apreferred exemplary embodiment of the invention with reference to thefigure. The figure is a schematic drawing to show an arrangement forimplementing the method by way of the Internet and, connected thereto, aGSM mobile radio network PLMN.

[0026] The structure of the mobile radio network PLMN is known per seand need not be explained in detail here. Mobile stations (mobilephones) MS are linked within a dynamic cell structure, each beingconnected by way of a base station BTS/BSC to a mobile switching centreMSC. To the mobile switching centre MSC are assigned a plurality ofdatabases; those sketched in the figure are the equipment identityregister EIR, the authentication centre AUC, the home location registerHLR and the visitor location register VLR.

[0027] The mobile switching centre MSC is connected to other mobileradio networks PLMN—also at an international scale—by way of aninternational switching centre ISC. The mobile switching centre MSC alsocommunicates, by way of a first gateway mobile switching centre GMSC,with the public switched telephone network PSTN or an ISDN telephonenetwork ISDN, and by way of a second gateway mobile switching centreGMSC it is linked to the system belonging to the provider of a servicein the framework of the present invention, as described below in-greaterdetail.

[0028] The service provider operates a server S, which by way of aserver terminal SS—for example, a data interface of suitable capacity—isconnected to the gateway mobile switching centre GMSC of the mobileradio network PLMN. The server S comprises a controller SC, by way ofwhich the execution of the method proceeds.

[0029] To the server S is assigned a first call-number database CNDB1,which obtains its supply of data from the home location register and thevisitor location register belonging to the mobile switching centre MSC.The server S also has access to a second call-number database CNDB2, thedata content of which is gradually built up as the method is carriedout. In a primary message store PMS is deposited a primary message orset of primary messages, which is/are generated on the basis of contentprespecified in a primary-message synthesis unit PMG.

[0030] Also associated with the server S is a secondary-message storeSMS, in which individually addressable memory regions contain aplurality of secondary messages that have been generated by asecondary-message synthesis unit SMG. In a special embodiment, in whichthe method is employed for the playing of a game, generation of thesecondary messages by the secondary-message synthesis unit involvesinput of the game-rule data content of a game-rule database GDB, whichis drawn in dashed outline to indicate that it is optionally provided.

[0031] On the output side the server S is connected to an evaluationunit EU to evaluate the response messages received by way of the serverterminal SS, the output of which is connected to an evaluation-resultdatabase ERDB. This is accessible from outside—as symbolized by an arrowpointing outward—according to certain rules established with the serviceprovider. The evaluation unit EU is additionally connected to an inputof the secondary-message synthesis unit SMG, so that the evaluationresults can be incorporated into the generation of secondary messages.

[0032] The way in which the illustrated arrangement functions will beevident from the above general discussion of the execution of themethod.

[0033] The implementation of the invention is not restricted to thearrangement presented here as an example or to the method described andapplications cited above, but is equally possible in a large number ofmodifications that are within the competence of a person skilled in theart. List of reference symbols AUC Authentication centre BTS Basetransceiving station BSC Base station controller CNDB1 First call-numberdatabase CNDB1 Second call-number database EIR Equipment identityregister ERDB Evaluation-result database EU Evaluation unit GDBGame-rule database GMSC Gateway MSC HLR Home location register ISCInternational switching centre ISDN ISDN telephone network MS Mobilestation MSC Mobile switching centre OMC Operation and maintenance centrePLMN Public land mobile network PMG Primary-message syntheis unit(generator) PMS Primary-message storage PSTN Public switched telephonenetwork S Server SC Service controller SMG Secondary-message syntheisunit (generator) SMS Secondary-message storage SS Server terminal VLRVisitor location register

1. Method for operating a telecommunications system, including inparticular a mobile radio network (PLMN), to provide a service and toobtain information, with the steps: storage of a plurality of terminalcall numbers of the telecommunications system in a first call-numberdatabase (CNDB1), generation of a primary message that comprises atleast one information component, a response request standardized inaccordance with an evaluation algorithm and a call number of a serverterminal, and storage in a primary-message store (PMS) of a server (S),production of a plurality of secondary messages, the content of which isdependent on (a) at least one information element in a response messageproduced in reaction to the primary message and/or (b) a terminal callnumber of the telecommunications system and/or (c) the geographicalposition of a terminal reacting to the primary message, and which aredeposited in a secondary-message store (SMS), sequential or parallelsending of the stored primary message to the call numbers stored in thefirst call-number database, by means of a server terminal (SS),reception of response messages by the server terminal (SS) withrecording of the sender's call number and/or the geographic position ofthe sender's terminal (MS), evaluation of each received messageaccording to the evaluation algorithm, storage of the sender's callnumber in a storage region of a second call-number database (CNDB2),storage of the evaluation result and/or of the geographic position inassociation with the sender's call number, in an evaluation-resultdatabase (ERDB), addressing a storage region of the secondary-messagestore (SMS) in dependence on the evaluation result and readout of thestored secondary message as well as the associated storage region in thesecond call-number database (CNDB2) to the server terminal (SS) andsending the secondary message that has been read out to the relevantuser terminal (MS).
 2. Method according to claim 1, characterized inthat as the first call-number database (CNDB1) at least one homelocation register (HLR) and/or at least one visitor location register(VLR) of a cellular mobile radio network or a database at the serverthat is connected thereto is used.
 3. Method according to claim 1,characterized in that the first call-number database (CNDB1) comprisescall numbers that are arbitrarily predetermined, in particular areproduced by means of a random-number generator.
 4. Method according toone of the preceding claims, characterized in that an approximategeographic position of the sender's terminal (MS) is found from theterminal's place in the visitor location register (VLR) of a specialmobile switching centre (MSC) or from the status of its connection to aspecial base station (BTS/BSC) of a cellular mobile radio network(PLMN).
 5. Method according to one of the preceding claims,characterized in that the information component of the primary messagecomprises information about rules of a game and/or at least onequestion, and the response request comprises a request for speech ortext input.
 6. Method according to one of the preceding claims,characterized in that the primary message and/or the secondary messagesare formulated as in particular synthetic speech or text messages in SMSor WML format for output by way of the receiver cap or the display,respectively, of a mobile telephone (MS).
 7. Method according to one ofthe preceding claims, characterized in that the secondary messagescomprise response requests, and the steps involved in reception andevaluation of response messages as well as in storing the evaluationresult are repeated after the secondary messages have been sent, inparticular on multiple occasions separated by the sending of follow-upmessages.
 8. Method according to claim 7, characterized in that at leastsome of the sequentially transmitted secondary messages containinformation regarding the progress of the game and/or questions, and atleast some of the various response messages contain informationregarding the moves to be made in the game and/or answers.
 9. Methodaccording to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that by wayof the evaluation-result database (ERDB) a filter device associated withthe secondary-message store (SMS) is controlled in such a way as tofilter out secondary messages in dependence on information received withthe response messages.
 10. Method according to one of the precedingclaims, characterized in that secondary messages are produced from thecontents of the memory in the evaluation-result database (ERDB). 11.Method according to claim 10, characterized in that depending on theresult obtained by evaluating a plurality of response messages, at leastone unfamiliar terminal call number and/or an evaluation resultconcerning an unfamiliar user of the telecommunication system isintegrated into secondary messages.
 12. Method according to one of thepreceding claims, characterized in that depending on the result obtainedby evaluating a plurality of response messages, identical secondarymessages are sent to a plurality of different terminal call numbers fromthe second call-number database.
 13. Arrangement for implementing themethod according to one of the preceding claims, which comprises: aserver (S) with a control unit (SC) and at least one server terminal(SS), a first and a second call-number database (CNDB1, CNDB2), aprimary-message and a secondary-message store (PMS, SMS), an evaluationunit (EU) to evaluate response messages that are received and anevaluation-result database (ERDB) connected to the evaluation unit. 14.Arrangement according to claim 13, characterized in that for theautomatic sequential or parallel transmission of primary and/orsecondary messages the first and/or second call-number database (CNDB1,CNDB2) is connected to a control input of the server terminal (SS) orserver terminals.
 15. Arrangement according to claim 13 or 14,characterized in that for the automatic evaluation of the responsemessages the evaluation unit (EU) is connected to a data output of theor each server terminal (SS).
 16. Arrangement according to one of theclaims 13 to 15, characterized by a primary-message synthesis unit (PMG)and/or a secondary-message synthesis unit (SMG) for thecomputer-assisted generation of primary and/or secondary messages, inparticular constructed as a speech-synthesis unit or a text-synthesisunit operating according to the SMS or WML standard.
 17. Arrangementaccording to one of the claims 13 to 16, characterized in that thetelecommunications system is designed as a mobile radio system (PLMN) orcomprises an IP network linked to a mobile radio network by way of agateway mobile switching centre (GMSC).
 18. Arrangement according toclaim 17, characterized in that the first call-number database comprisesat least one home location register (HLR) and/or at least one visitorlocation register (VLR) of the mobile radio network or is connectedthereto.
 19. Arrangement according to one of the claims 13 to 17,characterized in that to one input of the first call-number database(CNDB1) a random-variable generator is connected.
 20. Arrangementaccording to one of the claims 16 to 19, characterized in that one inputof the primary-message synthesis unit (PMG) or the secondary-messagesynthesis unit (SMG) is connected to a game-rule database (GDB). 21.Arrangement according to one of the claims 13 to 20, characterized inthat the evaluation-result database (ERDB) is connected to a controlinput of a filter device associated with the secondary-message store(SMS).
 22. Arrangement according to one of the claims 16 to 21,characterized in that the secondary-message synthesis unit (SMG) isconnected on its input side to the output of the evaluation unit (EU) orof the evaluation-result database (ERDB).
 23. Arrangement according toone of the claims 16 to 22, characterized in that the secondary-messagesynthesis unit (SMG) is connected on its input side to the secondcall-number database (CNDB2).
 24. Arrangement according to one of theclaims 13 to 23, characterized in that the controller (SC) and theserver terminal (SS) or server terminals are designed for sending inparallel a plurality of primary messages and/or secondary messages, inparticular by the cell broadcast method.